Salute to a brave and modest nation - Kevin Myers, 'The Sunday Telegraph' LONDON:
Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region.
And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.. It seems that Canada's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: mac w only ||
11/02/2008 10:57 ||
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Nice find, mac w only. Hopefully we will do as well in our elections Tuesday as Canada two weeks ago.
Mark Levin is right. The Undocumented Auntie isn't even one of the 12, 15, 30, whatever million run-of-the-mill Undocumented-Americans who just wander into the country and decide to stay. She's one of the far more select number - half a million or so - who've been served a deportation order. She is, in law, not merely an illegal immigrant but what ICE call a "fugitive alien".
So when John Conyers gets huffy about "leaks", is it even possible to "leak" that someone's a "fugitive"? When regular boring US citizens are fugitives, they get pasted up on Post Office walls and written up in the papers. And, in the event that someone discovers that the guy on the lam is holed up at 27b Elm Street, there's not usually a wave of outrage on the appalling breach of the fugitive's privacy rights.
If I were Joe the Plumber, I'd ask Aunt Zeituni if I could move in. It's his best chance of a quiet life.
Also printed in yesterday's Washington Post, in the interest of balance, I suppose.
Last week I made the open-and-shut case for John McCain: In a dangerous world entering an era of uncontrolled nuclear proliferation, the choice between the most prepared foreign policy candidate in memory vs. a novice with zero experience and the wobbliest one-world instincts is not a close call.
But it's all about economics and kitchen-table issues, we are told. OK. Start with economics.
Neither candidate has particularly deep economic knowledge or finely honed economic instincts. Neither has any clear idea exactly what to do in the current financial meltdown. Hell, neither does anyone else, including the best economic minds in the world, from Henry Paulson to the head of the European Central Bank. Yet they have muddled through with some success
Both McCain and Barack Obama have assembled fine economic teams that may differ on the details of their plans but have reasonable approaches to managing the crisis. So forget the hype. Neither candidate has an advantage on this issue.
On other domestic issues, McCain is just the kind of moderate conservative that the Washington/media establishment once loved -- the champion of myriad conservative heresies that made him a burr in the side of congressional Republicans and George W. Bush. But now that he is standing in the way of an audacity-of-hope Democratic restoration, erstwhile friends recoil from McCain on the pretense that he has suddenly become right wing.
Self-serving rubbish. McCain is who he always was. Generally speaking, he sees government as a Rooseveltian counterweight (Teddy with a touch of Franklin) to the various malefactors of wealth and power. He wants government to tackle large looming liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare. He wants to free up health insurance by beginning to sever its debilitating connection to employment - a ruinous accident of history (arising from World War II wage and price controls) that increases the terror of job loss, inhibits labor mobility and saddles American industry with costs that are driving it (see: Detroit) into insolvency. And he supports lower corporate and marginal tax rates to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation. Never thought of it that way, Charles.
An eclectic, moderate, generally centrist agenda in a guy almost congenitally given to bipartisanship.
Obama, on the other hand, talks less and less about bipartisanship, his calling card during his earlier messianic stage. He does not need to. If he wins, he will have large Democratic majorities in both houses. And unlike 1992, Obama is no Clinton centrist.
What will you get?
(1) Card check, meaning the abolition of the secret ballot in the certification of unions in the workplace. Large men will come to your house at night and ask you to sign a card supporting a union. You will sign.
(2) The so-called Fairness Doctrine -- a project of Nancy Pelosi and leading Democratic senators -- a Hugo Chavez-style travesty designed to abolish conservative talk radio.
(3) Judges who go beyond even the constitutional creativity we expect from Democratic appointees. Judges chosen according to Obama's publicly declared criterion: "empathy" for the "poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old" -- in a legal system historically predicated on the idea of justice entirely blind to one's station in life.
(4) An unprecedented expansion of government power. Yes, I know. It has already happened. A conservative government has already partially nationalized the mortgage industry, the insurance industry and nine of the largest U.S. banks.
This is all generally swallowed because everyone understands that the current crisis demands extraordinary measures. The difference is that conservatives are instinctively inclined to make such measures temporary. Whereas an Obama-Pelosi-Reid-Barney Frank administration will find irresistible the temptation to use the tools inherited - $700 billion of largely uncontrolled spending - as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to radically remake the American economy and social compact.
This is not socialism. This is not the end of the world. It would, however, be a decidedly leftward move on the order of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. The alternative is a McCain administration with a moderate conservative presiding over a divided government and generally inclined to resist a European social-democratic model of economic and social regulation featuring, for example, wealth-distributing growth-killing marginal tax rates.
The national security choice in this election is no contest. The domestic policy choice is more equivocal because it is ideological. McCain is the quintessential center-right candidate. Yet the quintessential center-right country is poised to reject him. The hunger for anti-Republican catharsis and the blinding promise of Obamian hope are simply too strong. The reckoning comes in the morning. I already have a hangover.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/02/2008 06:31 ||
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Yes, I know. It has already happened. A conservative government has already partially nationalized the mortgage industry, the insurance industry and nine of the largest U.S. banks.
Soon to come... the evil oil companies, utilities, Cat Tractor, and automobiles. These belong to the SHEEPLE! Government must properly look after them!
#2
I already have the opinion that this election is like a prostate exam. Lets just get it over with and deal with the consequences. One of us will be smoking a cigarette afterward, me or the One.
Why do people continue to delude themselves that this was and has been a conservative government, when by performance its been moderate or centralist. Bush had some issues that conservatives liked, ie national defense and tax cuts, but his domestic policies in general were certainly not conservative. Likewise a Congress when dominated by the Trunks seemed to do exactly the same thing the Donks did on earmarks and spending, just moderately in comparison.
#4
He wants to free up health insurance by beginning to sever its debilitating connection to employment - a ruinous accident of history (arising from World War II wage and price controls) that increases the terror of job loss, inhibits labor mobility and saddles American industry with costs that are driving it (see: Detroit) into insolvency. And he supports lower corporate and marginal tax rates to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation.
Interesting observation. What's he suggest? Socialized medicine by chance?
THAT two drone attacks should take place in North and South Waziristan on the day when Gen Petraerus was to take command of the CENTCOM is rather ominous. These were conducted despite Ambassador Anne Patterson having been summoned to Foreign Office two days earlier to record a strong protest. She was also told that besides killing innocent non-combatants, acts of the sort undermined public support for Islamabad's efforts to uproot terrorism. The missile fired at a house in South Waziristan hit the followers of a known pro-Pakistan commander who had been instrumental in the removal of foreign militants from the area. The attack is likely to add to the difficulties of the government.
What is disturbing is the justification given for the attacks by US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff who has brazenly claimed the right to conduct them. In his view sovereignty entails responsibility to ensure that a country does not become a platform for attacking other countries either willingly or out of inability. This according to him is all the more important for countries with ungoverned or ungovernable areas as terrorists cannot be allowed to plan attacks, set up laboratories, and experiment with chemical and biological weapons. Many in Pakistan would say that after 9/11 the US has developed a peculiar state of mind that makes it see enemies in every nook and corner and to overreact to situations. Those living in Pakistan's under-developed tribal areas might be capable of fighting invaders with whatever weapons were supplied by the CIA during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and some might even cross over to the Afghan side in support of their kinsmen. They however lack the scientific knowledge and the technical know how required to develop chemical or biological weapons, which explains why these have never been used in FATA or Afghanistan. The operation by Pakistan army has already reduced cross border movement as US officials also concede. After the unanimous parliamentary resolution, commitments are being sought from tribes to abide by the provision that expressly demands that Pakistan's territory will not be allowed to be used for attacks against any country. Continued drone attacks indicate that the Bush administration is bent upon pursuing the aggressive and unfriendly course it has chosen disregarding Pakistan's protests.
What Islamabad needs to do is to realise the dangers that lie ahead for it on account of the policy of brinkmanship followed by Washington. While continuing to protest it should ponder over reviewing the logistic support to the US-led forces in Afghanistan. Meanwhile it should take all measures to eradicate extremism and terrorism from the tribal areas and bring them into the mainstream through social and economic development and political reforms.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/02/2008 00:00 ||
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Wait until these guys hear what Obama says about striking freely across borders into TalibanstanISIstan Pakistan.
#1
From the article: "Hopefully this period of liquidation and deleveraging will be over very soon." I am figuring it will take 5-10 years for the world economy to stabilize. The government's efforts to support housing prices are only prolonging and extending the process of housing liquidation and deleveraging, and every politician supports this process.
It isn't often that Rantburg takes an explicit political position. Fred and the mods are all about the War on Terror and its ramifications (honestly, all those stories about Britney have to do with the WoT, really, we swear). We at the Burg, unlike a lot of other people in the mainstream and alternative medias, believe that our readers are smart enough to cast their ballots in an election.
So we've never told you how to vote.
And we won't start now.
But you have a responsibility on Tuesday.
Vote.
It's easy to be an 'Eeyore'. You've been bombarded with stories about Barack Obama. He's The One, the Light-walker, the man who will heal the planet and cause the oceans to recede. He's the one you've been waiting for, so you've been told.
And told. And told.
And he's running against a crotchety old man who hasn't done anything much except serve his country with distinction and honor all his adult life.
All this election, the mainstream media, a wholly owned subsidiary of David Axelrod, has told you just how wonderful Obama is, how he'll make our country more loved around the world, repay your mortgage and have you driving a hydrogen-powered car. They've also told you how old and mean, and old and unhappy, and old and out of touch, and old, John McCain is. We've heard about dissent in the McCain campaign, how unpolished a speaker he is, how his positions are old-fashioned, how he's unprepared to handle the economy, and how he's the third term of George Bush.
You've also heard about how unprepared Sarah Palin is, how she hasn't traveled abroad, how she speaks like a hick, how she handles icky firearms and shoots innocent caribou, and how she can't dress properly even when she shops at the Needless Markup. My goodness, she didn't even go to an Ivy League school.
Now maybe you've gotten this strange notion in your head, a voice that says, "you know, I'm not sure I can believe everything I'm hearing from the media."
Listen to that inner voice.
Because this is what you're going to hear from the media this weekend and into Tuesday evening.
You'll be told that the race is over and that John McCain is in the process of quitting 'honorably'. He's going to 'give up for the good of the country', and because of that there's no reason for you to vote.
You'll be told that the polls show Obama as the probative favorite in all the Battleground states, and that McCain has already lost them, and because of that there's no reason for you to vote.
You'll be told on Election Day that Obama has won all the states. The media will proclaim Obama the winner one minute after the polls open based on 'scientific exit polls', and because of that there's no reason for you to vote.
You'll be told that minorities and young voters have turned out in record numbers, that they've all voted for Obama, and because of that there's no reason for you to vote.
Do you see a pattern here?
The mainstream media has sold out. They're in the tank so deep they've struck the undergravel filter. The mainstream media has been manipulated and they have liked it. They have no future if Obama loses, so they're going to behave in the best Chicago tradition: having been bought, they're going to stay bought.
In the primaries, Axelrod and the Obama campaign worked hard to depress the Hillary Clinton voters, and it worked. Not that I have much love for Senator Clinton, but what was done to her and her people was brutal and more than a little wrong. And it was all geared to make Clinton voters, particularly in caucus states, give up.
They did. And because of that Senator Clinton lost her fight.
Mr. Axelrod is doing the same thing now and has been since Obama locked up the nomination. They're pulling all the same tricks with a compliant media leading the way for them, and it's all designed to keep you, the McCain voter, and you, the McCain-leaning voter, and you, the independent, not-quite-sure voter, home on Election Day.
That's how Obama wins.
Think about that. Understand what's being done in these last few days.
Then go to the polls Tuesday and vote. Don't listen to the media.
Vote.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/02/2008 00:00 ||
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The MILF "joke" on Leno tonight was the last straw.
#4
Already done, Steve, and thanks to Rantburg for pushing this issue forward. I always say that if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain about what happened later. You didn't earn it.
#6
Well said, Dr. Steve dear. Trailing daughter #1 is coming home to vote today, Mr, Wife and I will make a date of it on Tuesday. Ohio is still a swing state this year -- perhaps our three votes will put it over the top.
#7
I live in one county and work in another, and my workday logistics are less than ideal, so I voted early. I wasn't the only one, and my county of residence is one of Ohio's redder ones, so that's a good sign.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/01/2008 8:30 Comments ||
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"Well, Doctor, what have we gotâa Republic or a Monarchy?"
"A Republic, if you can keep it."
- Benjamin Franklin
#10
Blondie and I have already voted - and if it is any reassurance, the McCain/Palin yard signs are popping up like mushrooms after a good rain. And yesterday I saw a little Toyota Yaris, driven by a young Hispanic woman simply plastered with Palin and Palin/McCain stickers, and a pick-up truck driven by a scruffy Anglo young man with "plz NOBAMA" written in big letters across the rear window. Even though this is metropolitan Texas, I almost never see conservative political sentiments on cars like that - usually its the other way around.
#12
we've got Prop 8 here in CA, which is a constitutional amendment smackdown of teh four robed elitists who overturned our ban on gay marriage. I'll crawl over broken glass to vote against Obama and his cretinous followers
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/01/2008 10:32 Comments ||
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If my little town here in the People's Republic of Johnson County is any indication....there's going to be record turnout. (And I wouldn't call this state for Obama quite yet. If it was in the bag, he wouldn't have just dropped in for a spell in Des Moines this week.)
We've had early voting for a while, and this area is one of the redder parts of the county. I even saw a line forming last morning when I took the Tsarevich to the community center Halloween party yesterday.
Not a lot of Eeyores here, Dr. Steve. Take heart! ;)
#14
Frank, Frank, I'm disappointed you are not going to vote the way our German overlords tell you.
Posted by: ed ||
11/01/2008 11:31 Comments ||
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BTW, voted early. Hour long wait since the early voting places opened. The county even opened up a few extra polling places to relieve the crowd. Lots of Obama signs leading up to the polling place. Not so many O'voters. We have families to support and mortgages to pay.
Posted by: ed ||
11/01/2008 11:35 Comments ||
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Austrian, I think, and no, I don't ;-)
We need a real pimpslap of our betters in this state, as a first step back into regaining control before it spirals into the ground
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/01/2008 11:35 Comments ||
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What am I going to be thinking about when I go into the voting booth? This.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/01/2008 11:36 Comments ||
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Here in my area of the Left Coast our politicians are just to the right or far left of Vladimir Lenin.
A local notable in the Senator is Barbara Boxer.
The following Representatives will be re-elected by a landslide:
Nancy Pelosi
Lynn C. Woolsey
George Miller
Barbara Lee
Ellen O. Tauscher
Jackie Speier
Fortney (Pete) Stark
Anna G. Eshoo
Mike Honda
Zoe Lofgren
I have had NO representation in DC for years. However, I have never missed a vote in a National Election since I was first eligible to vote and foolishly cast it for John Kennedy.
Even though I feel like Sisyphus, I will vote.
In the immortal words of Brother Dave Gardner:
"Gratitude is riches, and complaint is poverty, and the worst I ever had was wonderful! Yea, though every night is Saturday and every day is Sunday, and I've been wrong, I'm going to try it one more time!" Hard Sayins
#19
Its time to lock and load that vote and cast it for the underdog. The fact that this race is as close (if you think polls are remotely accurate) shows how weakness of the media illuminati influence. If they had any power, based on the coverage, this shouldn't even be close.
Posted by: Gi Joe ||
11/01/2008 12:45 Comments ||
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we've got Prop 8 here in CA, which is a constitutional amendment smackdown of teh four robed elitists who overturned our ban on gay marriage. I'll crawl over broken glass to vote against Obama and his cretinous followers
I'll be there too Frank. The polls are BS. Prop 8 will pass. And it will be a close one for McCain. One thing I know about McCain, he has the propensity to get most of those undecided, independent voters at the last minute. I don't really understand it myself, but those folks are the one's that may just hand this thing to McCain. Lets all pray this happens and people come to their senses by Tuesday.
#21
Even if Obama is defeated, which is a very big 'if,' I am very concerned about the future and the "America" our children will inherit. Washington is now run by a cadre of left leaning bureaucrats which some believe may be 85-95% democrat. The impact a McCain presidency would have on such a Washington "Failure Factory" as Geretz calls it, is questionable at best. A democratic congress will attack him with the same vengence metted out to President Bush, possibly worse. The PSYOP operation, as OldSpook astutely mentioned, that Axelrod & Co., and moneyed keepers of the sacred Obamatalmud, have done on certain segments of our society is indeed frightening. Many of us here on the Burg have visited or lived in lands which have already realized the Obama dream of "Change." We know what that change means and what may lie ahead. What an awakening must surely be in store for believers of the mutlticultural, government is the answer, entitlement based faith. We may indeed be approaching a historic period in our nation's brief history. Books will most certainly be written about it. Whether or not they will be published or hidden in Mason jars is yet another question. I recall from childhood a small town deep in Southern Illinois. It's name is "Future City." At one point years ago, pranksters scrawled across the Future City sign at the entrance to the town the phrase "time will tell." It would appear we are rapidly approaching "Future City." I'm hanging on, hoping and praying for the best.
#22
I'm getting on a plane to travel and will be out during the vote, so I voted early, thank god AZ allows that. My wife canned her plans and will go to vote in person. She believes her vote not only needs to be cast but seen! HT to her.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/01/2008 14:06 Comments ||
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I live in Cook County, IL. My vote for Prez will be meaningless to the end result here, but, dammit, I shall not go down without being, polls and pundits aside, heard.
#25
I'm skipping my workout to make sure I'm able to vote nice and early. Seeing more McCain/Palin yard signs/bumper stickers/tee-shirts out here in eastern Loudoun County.
#26
I'm skipping my workout to make sure I'm able to vote nice and early. Seeing more McCain/Palin yard signs/bumper stickers/tee-shirts out here in eastern Loudoun County.
Seeing how Obama and the democrats are working to undermine the voting process, it may well be the last chance you have to make your vote mean something. Show up and vote.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
